Multiple sheet removal detector employing electrically contacting rollers

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for testing sheets to determine if a given thickness has been exceeded includes a fixed roller having a generally cylindrical surface including a sheet-carrying portion and an electrical contact portion, and a movable roller having a similar sheet-carrying portion and an electrical contact portion. The diameters of the electrical contact portions and the sheetcarrying portions are such that in normal operation the electrical contact portions of the two rollers are in contact with each other while the two sheet-carrying portions are spaced by a distance which permits passage of a sheet between them without displacement of the movable roller. In the event that this thickness is exceeded, as for example, would occur if more than one sheet were delivered between the rollers at one time, the movable roller would be moved so that the electrical contact would be broken to trigger an appropriate signal circuit.

United States Patent [72] Inventors Karl Rehm;

Hermann Schwarz, Constance, Germany [2|] AppLNo. 819,036 [22] Filed Apr.24, 1969 [45] Patented Feb. 16, 1971 y [73] Assignee LlcentiaPatent-Varwaltungs-G.m.b.H.

Frankfurt Main, Germany [32] Priority Mar.22, 1969 [33] Germany [31] P19 14 823.3

[54] MULTIPLE SHEET REMOVAL DETECTOR I EMPLOYING ELECTRICALLY CONTACTINGROLLERS 5 Claims, 4 Drawing Figs. [52] U.S.Cl 200/61.4 1; 340/259 [51]Int.Cl. I-I0lh3/16 [50] FieldofSearch ZOO/61.13,6l.l4,61.4l,6l.42,6I.19,46;340/259 [56] References Cited UNITED STATESPATENTS 2,494,615 1/1950 Hayes ZOO/61.41 2,306,096 9/1957 Christopher200/46 3,204,054 8/1965 Ouellette Primary Examiner-Robert K. SchaeferAssistant Examiner-M. Ginsburg Attorney-Spencer & Kaye ABSTRACT:Apparatus for testing sheets to determine if a given thickness has beenexceeded includes a fixed roller having a generally cylindrical surfaceincluding a sheet-carrying portion and an electrical contact portion,and a movable roller having a similar sheet-carrying portion and anelectrical contact portion. The diameters of the electrical contactportions and the sheet-carrying portions are such that in normaloperation the electrical contact portions of the two rollers are incontact with each other while the two sheet-carrying portions are spacedby a distance which permits passage of a sheet between them withoutdisplacement of the movable roller. In the event that this thickness isexceeded, as for example, would occur if more than one sheet weredelivered between the rollers at one time, the movable roller would bemoved so that the electrical contact would be broken to trigger anappropriate signal circuit.

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PATENTEUFEBYBIBYI 3.564.170

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INVENTORS Karl Rehm 8 Hermann Schworz ATTORNEY5 MULTIPLE SHEET REMOVALDETECTOR EMPLOYING ELECTRICALLY CONTACTING ROLLERS BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION I. Field of the invention This invention relates to a devicefor testing the thickness of sheets including paper money, and moreparticularly to such a device in which the sheets are passed between afixed and a movable rollerand a signal circuit is influenced dependingupon the amount of deflection of the movable roller occurring inresponse to the thickness of the sheets.

2. Description of the Prior Art In known devices of this type thedeflectable roller is connected to a lever system, which transmits thedeflection and produces a measuring stroke as high as possible at theend of the lever. A contact is disposed at the end of the leverand isactuated after the lever has moved through a certain distance whichdepends upon a predetermined thickness of the sheet. Uncertainties arisewith these devices asa result of play in the bearings, deformation, andthe movement of parts out of alignment. As a result, even with'highproduction accuracy, a constantly high measuring or testing accuracyisnot achieved. A high accuracy, however, is necessary if such athickness testing device is used to determine that only one sheet ofpaper money is present at a timeafter separation from a stack, and ifthe'device is to indicate doubleremovals with high dependability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Among the objects of the present invention isthe provision of an apparatus of the above-mentioned type which keepswithin deviation errors of as little as 0.01 mm. over a long period ofoperation and which is of simple and mechanically rugged construction.

. Briefly stated, these and other objects of the invention are achievedby the provision of a sheet-carrying region and an electrical contactregion on the cylindrical surface of each of the rollers. The rollersare mounted so that when the movable roller is in its undeflectedposition, the electrical contact portions of both rollers are inengagement with each other. The diameter of at least one electricalcontact portion is suffi- I of paper money passes beneath a guide roller13 and carries the bills around a roller body 3 which rotates about ashaft 4 having a fixed position on support structure 46. Belt 1 passesaround roller 3 and then back to the separator device. Also mounted onshaft 4 are a pair of fixed rollers 5 one of which is on each side ofroller 3. A portion of the periphery of rollers 5 is in contact with adeflectable roller 6 which is mounted in a pair of rockerarms 10 whichare pivoted on support structure 46 so as to permit the rollers 6 to beraised out of contact with rollers 5. One lower delivery belt 8 isentrained about each of the fixed rollers 5, and a pair of upperdelivery belts 12 are passed about roller 6. The lower run 28 of theupper belt and ciently larger than that of the sheet-carrying portion ofits roller so that, in the undeflected position, the spacing between thesheet-contacting portions of the two rollers is large enough to permitpassage between the rollers of a single sheet without deflecting themovable roller. The electrical contact portions of the two rollers aresoconnected into a signalling circuit so that their separation, inresponse to the passage of a sheet of greater than normal thicknessbetween the rollers, produces an appropriate indication.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view of a deviceaccording to the present invention for testing the thickness of papermoney, associated delivery equipment for separating the money from astack and DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to FIG.1 and 2 will be seen at the right-hand side in dotted lines of FIG. 1,elements of a separator device as disclosed in applicants copendingapplication Ser. No. 819,712 for Sheet Separator of common ownershipwith this application and filed Apr. 28, 1969. This device includes atransfer belt 1 which separates individual bills 2 from a stack theupper run 29 of the lower belt run together so as to carry a billdelivered by the transfer belt I to a further destination.

Each of the rollers 5 and 6 includes sheet-carrying portions, andelectrical contact portions, which are electrically connected to asignal circuit 30 (FIG. 3) as is hereafter described in greater detail.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the structure of the rollers 5 and 6 will beseen in more detail. For spatial reasons rollers 5 are mounted forrotation about the same shaft 4 which carries the rollers 3 of thetransfer belt 2. Roller 3 includes a central beltcarrying portion 32 andside journal portions 33. Portions 32 and 33 are both cylindrical,portions 32 having a greater diameter than portions 33. Portion 32 hasan axial length generally equal to the-width of transfer belt 1 which islooped about it. Portions 33 carry bearing bushings 7 made of insulatingmaterial. The rollers 5 are'mounted on bushings 7 and formed of anelectrically conductive material. The cylindrical periphery of rollers 5is divided into a recessed portion 36 and an outer portion 34. The depthof recessed portion 36 below outer portion 34 is equal to the thicknessof lower delivery belt 8. Accordingly, the top of the upper run 29 ofthe belt is level with the remainder of the roller periphery and a levelbed is formed for the reception of a bill 2.

Roller 6 is formed with a number of adjacent cylindrical portions havingdifferent diameters and a common axis 37. Two electrical contactportions 6' are formed, one at each end of the roller. The diameter ofportions 6 is greater than the diameter of the remainder of the roller.'Axially inwardly of each electrical contact portions 6' bearingportions 38 are formed of a diameter which is substantially smaller thaneither electrical contact portion 6' or body portions 40 which arelocated on the other side of the bearing portion. A slot 39 for thereception of rocker arms 10 is defined by the facing sides of theelectrical contact portion 6 and body portion 40. Slot 39 has a widthonly slightly greater than that of arms 10. Cylindrical sheet contact,or engaging, portions 42 project outwardly from body portion 40. Theradius of the cylindrical sheet contact portion 42 is less thanitheradius of the electrical contact portions 6' by a distance which isgreater than the normal expected thickness of one bill 2, but less thanthe thickness of two bills. A central portion 41 of reduced diameterseparates the body portions 40 on each side of the roller. A taperedslot 44 is located in the bottom half of each rocker arm 10. Slot 44 hasa width which is slightly greater than the diameter of the bearingportion 38. The end of each arm which is opposite to the slot 44 ismounted for rotation about a shaft 10' which is secured to supportstructure 46. In operation, arms 10 are mounted within slot 39 of roller6 with the rocker arm slots 44 straddling the bearing portion 38.

Two upper delivery belts 12 pass about a drive roller 48 mounted on thesupport structure 46, then the upper reaches 50 of these belts pass overa tension roller (not shown) and the top of the body portion 40 ofroller 6 then about a guide roller 13 which is mounted on the separatordevice for spatial reasons, then the belts continue below roller 6 sothat the lower run 28 of each belt rests upon the upper run 29 of thelower delivery belts 8, and then back to drive roller 48.

The lower delivery belts 8 are entrained about the recessed portion 36of rollers 5, and about a drive roller 9, which is also mounted onsupport structure 46.

and 22, one of which is mounted on each side to engage the outerperiphery -34 of rollers 5. Cleaning felts 24 are also mounted on thesupport structure to remove dust, etc. from the electrical contactportion of roller 5, and similar cleaning felts 23 are mounted on arm 10to clean the electrical contact portion 6' of roller 6.

The electrical contact brushes 21 and 22 are respectively connected tocontacts 19 and-20 to which the signal circuit 30 leads are connected.The signal circuit 30 may include a powersource 14, and a resistor lwhich are paralleled by a capacitator; 16, both of which are connectedto a Zener diode 17, and an output-terminal 18. Power source 14 andresistor 15 are normally short circuited through the rollers 5 and 6,but breaking of the contactbetwe'en the rollers suppliesthe output ofpower source 14 to Zener diode 17 and output terminal 18. In use thedeflectable-roller 6 is held with its electrical contact portions 6 incontact with aportion of the periphery of 34 of roller 5. it is held inposition by the arms and the upper run 50 of upper delivery belt 12 alsoserves to press roller 6 toward roller 5.

-At-such times the outermost portions of the periphery 34 of roller 5are in engagement with electrical contact portions6,

and accordingly these regions serve as electrical contact regions ,forthe roller 5. Regions of periphery 34 which are opposite the sheetcontacting portions 42 of roller6 serve as sheet contactingor engagingportions. The dimensions of the electrical contact portion 6' and thesheet-contacting portion 42 of roller 6 are so selected that a measuringgap 11 exists between sheet-contacting portion 42 and the periphery 34of roller5. The dimensions of this gap are such that it is greater thanthe thickness-of one bill, less than the thickness of two bills. a

in operation the'transfer belt-l carries a bill 2 up into theregionbetween the upper and lower delivery belts 8and 12. These beltsengage the bill and carry itto a further destination. During this timebill 2 passes between the sheet-contacting portion 42 of roller 6 andperiphery 34 of roller 5. These por-.v

tions could also be considered as sheet-carrying portions. If only onebill is present it passes through gap 11 without effect. However, ifmore than one bill is carried at one time the sheetcontacting portion 42is engaged by the upper bill and lifted.-

This breaks the contact between the electrical contact portions of thetwo rollers.

As will be'observed in FIG. 2 and in FIG-"3 in which the insulatingbushings 7 connected to rollers 5 are shown schematically, theelectrical contact between the signal circuit terminals 19 and 20 isnormally completed by a series circuit arrangement passing throughroller 6 from the two electrical contact portions 6. Interruption of thecircuit causes the development of an appropriate signal at outputterminal 18. However, in the event of relatively short interruptions ofelectrical contact, as might for example be caused by presence of dustparticles, the parallel capacitor 16 does not charge sufficiently toprovide an output signal.

" FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of the invention is Y which aroller 5' is electrically continuous as distinguished from the roller 5in which two separate electrical contact portions are insulated fromeach other by the bushings 7. In this case, the brush 21' connected tothe signal circuit terminal 20 is connected to the roller Sand the brush22' connected to 'the'signal circuit terminal 19' engages roller6.'Accordingly,

The current source 14 and the resistor 15 are normally short circuitedthrough the two rollers. When the short circuit is broken a voltage isdelivered which'is strong enough to exceed the breakdown voltage of theZener diode 17 and a signal is delivered to the output terminal 18. Veryshort interruptions of the circuit, such as might be caused by thepresence of dust on the rollers, do not cause the delivery of asufficiently strong signal to pass the Zener diode since when the shortcircuit is first interrupted the time required to charge capacitor 16prevents the necessary voltage increase from occurring in an extremelyshort interval. I

It will be understood that the above. description of the presentinvention is susceptible to various I modifications, changes andadaptations.

We claim: Y

1. Apparatus for testing sheets to determine if a given thickness hasbeen exceeded, comprising, in combination:

a. support means; i

b. a first roller mounted for rotation on the support means about afixed axis, said first roller having a generally cylindrical surfaceincluding a sheet engaging portion and an electrical contact portion;said portions being in different axial positions on said first roller;

c. a second roller also having a generally cylindrical surface includinga sheet carrying engaging portion and an electrical contact portion inaxial positions corresponding to those of said first roller;

d. means mounting the second roller on the support means for rotationabout an axis which is generally parallel to that of said first rollerand for movement between a first position in which its electricalcontact portion is in contact with the electrical contact portion of thefirst roller and a second position in which said electrical contactportions are spaced from each other;

' c. said electrical contact portion on at least one roller having adiameter which is larger than that of the sheet-engaging portion on saidroller such that when the electrical-contacting portions of the firstand second rollers are in engagement with each other the sheet-carryingportions of the rollers are spaced by a distance which permits passageof only one sheet therebetween without deflection of said second rollerand which causes the simultaneous passage of more than one sheettherebetween to deflect said second roller 'for disengaging saidelectrical contact portions from one another;

f. means for delivering a sheet between the sheet-contacting portions ofsaid rollers; and

g. signal circuit means electrically connected to said electric contactportions of each of said rollers for producing a signal in response tothe movement of said electrical contact portions away from each otherwhereby a signal is produced if a sheet having a greater total thicknessthan is permitted by the spacing between said sheet-carrying porofthe-sheet-engaging portion of each roller and being axially spaced fromeach other by a distance greater than the width of one sheet.

3. The combination defined in claim 2 wherein said signal circuit meansincludes a circuit in which the two electrical contacts formed by theengagement of the corresponding contact portions on each roller form aseries circuit.

4. The combination defined in claim 2 wherein said signal circuit meansincludes a circuit in which the two electrical contacts formed by theengagement of the corresponding contact portions on each roller form aparallel circuit.

5. The combination defined in claim 1 including means for driving thefirst and'the second roller at speeds such that the peripheral speeds ofthe electrical contact portions of each roller differ from each other bya small amount.

Attest:

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent 3 ,564 ,170Dated February 16th, 1971 Invent0r(s) Karl Rehm and Hermann Schwarz Itis certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and thatsaid Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

In the heading of the patent, line 6 change "Varwaltungs" toVerwaltungs'-. Column 3 line 57 change "is" to i1 Signed and sealed this7th day of September 1971 (SEAL) EDWARD TCHER, JR. ROBERT GOTTSCHALKActing Commissioner of Pat Attesting Officer

1. Apparatus for testing sheets to determine if a given thickness hasbeen exceeded, comprising, in combination: a. support means; b. a firstroller mounted for rotation on the support means about a fixed axis,said first roller having a generally cylindrical surface including asheet engaging portion and an electrical contact portion, said portionsbeing in different axial positions on said first roller; c. a secondroller also having a generally cylindrical surface including a sheetcarrying engaging portion and an electrical contact portion in axialpositions corresponding to those of said first roller; d. means mountingthe second roller on the support means for rotation about an axis whichis generally parallel to that of said first roller and for movementbetween a first position in which its electrical contact portion is incontact with the electrical contact portion of the first roller and asecond position in which said electrical contact portions are spacedfrom each other; e. said electrical contact portion on at least oneroller having a diameter which is larger than that of the sheet-engagingportion on said roller such that when the electrical-contacting portionsof the first and second rollers are in engagement with each other thesheet-carrying portions of the rollers are spaced by a distance whichpermits passage of only one sheet therebetween without deflection ofsaid second roller and which causes the simultaneous passage of morethan one sheet therebetween to deflect said second roller fordisengaging said electrical contact portions from one another; f. meansfor delivering a sheet between the sheet-contacting portions of saidrollers; and g. signal circuit means electrically connected to saidelectric contact portions of each of said rollers for producing a signalin response to the movement of said electrical contact portions awayfrom each other whereby a signal is produced if a sheet having a greatertotal thickness than is permitted by the spacing between saidsheet-carrying portions is delivered between the rollers.
 2. Thecombination defined in claim 1 wherein there are two axially spacedelectrical contact portions on each of said rollers, said contactportions being located on opposite sides of the sheet-engaging portionof each roller and being axially spaced from each other by a distancegreater than the width of one sheet.
 3. The combination defined in claim2 wherein said signal circuit means includes a circuit in which the twoelectrical contacts formed by the engagement of the correspondingcontact portions on each roller form a series circuit.
 4. Thecombination defined in claim 2 wherein said signal circuit meansincludes a circuit in which the two electrical contacts formed by theengagement of the corresponding contact portions on each roller form aparallel circuit.
 5. The combination defined in claim 1 including meansfor driving the first and the second roller at speeds such that theperipheral speeds of the electrical contact portions of each rollerdiffer from each other by a small amount.